VFCCE names Ben Davenport chairman

Davenport Energy Inc. Chairman Ben Davenport is the next chairman of The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, the Richmond-based foundation announced Tuesday.

In 2016, Davenport and his wife, Betty, invested $1 million through VFCCE to create a pilot program with four community colleges that provided early childhood programs to 150 early childhood professionals. Those students also received academic coaching, supportive services and onsite workplace mentoring.

“I think the community college system, by and large, has been taken for granted,” Davenport said in a statement. “I decided that I needed to get involved and that maybe this was one of the best ways to redevelop the workforce and the level of education in our region and across the state.”

Ben Davenport’s father founded Davenport Energy in 1941. The company employs 150 people and has offices in Danville, Gretna, Rocky Mount, Martinsville, Roanoke, South Boston, Covington and Siler City, North Carolina. It supplies propane and fuel oil, along with related services, to more than 30,000 customers in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia and supplies gasoline and diesel fuel to more than 200 convenience stores.

“We are thrilled and honored to have Mr. Davenport as our chair,” Jennifer Gentry, VFCCE’s executive director and vice chancellor for institutional advancement, said in a statement. “His passion and vision for how philanthropic support can play such a critical role in education, and Virginia’s economy, serve as guideposts for VFCCE’s board and mission.”

Davenport also serves as chairman of waste management company First Piedmont Corp. and holds leadership positions on the Virginia Growth and Opportunity (GO Virginia) Board and the boards of Hargrave Military Academy, The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, the Future of the Piedmont Foundation and Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp.

He attended Hargrave Military Academy, served in the U.S. Coast Guard and graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in business in 1964. Davenport lives in Chatham.

Founded in 2006, VFCCE broadens access to education at Virginia’s 23 community colleges by supporting students with tuition, fees and books and by providing services ranging from technology to child care and transportation.